TiVo Goes After Sites Hosting Image Backups

TiVo User writes "TiVo has apparently decided to come down on sites that hosted 'image backups,' essentially tarballs of the OS for the machine, which just happens to be Linux. TiVo owners use the images to install on new, larger hard drives (increasing the recording capacity of the unit) or to recover a dead system. Why TiVo has a problem with this, but allows others to sell the same images for profit is beyond me." Read on for the rest of TiVo User's comments.

"The images are not used to create pirate TiVos (as a subscription service, TiVo justifiably controls access to their database tightly), so there wouldn't appear to be much harm in allowing them to be hosted. TiVo has always walked a fine line in allowing the user community to mod their units, perhaps they have finally stepped over that line, considering there are free alternatives that are less restrictive. To their credit, the legal mumbo jumbo in their cease letter is non-threatening compared to most other of this type, but it's interesting the letter draws no distinction between the portions of the software that are Linux, and therefore expressly distributable, and those that are proprietary to TiVo."

Re:Hmm

[Colonel Cholling]

<darl>
Of course not! The GPL is unconstitutional, un-American communist propaganda which is not legally binding in any civilized country. Besides, we own all the TiVos. It's our intellectual property. They should be paying us.
</darl>

Re:I smell FSF lawyers...

[Moderation abuser]

I think you'll find that Tivo do in fact comply with the GPL but ironically, those distributing the binary disk images *do not* comply with the GPL. If the FSF were to go after anyone, it would be those providing the binary only backup images...